Artists' Voices: Life in a Pandemic | Mairead O’hEocha in conversation from her studio in Dublin

Episode 5 of a new series of oral histories, led by Donal Maguire, curator of the Gallery's ESB CSIA, documenting some of the experiences and thoughts of artists living and working through the COVID-19 emergency. In this episode, artist Mairead O’hEocha discusses her current work and painting during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. This conversation was recorded on 22 May 2020. Born in Dublin, Mairead O’hEocha lives and works in Dublin’s city centre. She is a painter and tends to work in series, focusing often on sets of seemingly unremarkable and disparate subjects. These allow her to explore elements of form, colour, gesture and composition, while reflecting on deeper aspects of human nature. About Artists' Voices: Life in a Pandemic: Oral histories are a unique record of an individual’s personal thoughts and experiences. They are a valuable source of knowledge for researchers, providing insight and connection to a person’s life and character. The ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, at the National Gallery of Ireland, builds, cares for and makes available the national record of art in Ireland for public study and interpretation. Oral histories are a type of archival record and form an interesting part of the ESB CSIA’s collection. In recognizing the significant impact of COVID-19, the ESB CSIA is carrying out a series of short conversations with artists to document some of their experiences and thoughts of living and working through the pandemic. These conversations, led by Donal Maguire, Curator of the ESB CSIA, were recorded using technology that is conveniently available to the artist. The use of commonplace technologies for this project reflects the more general and increasing significance of these platforms for everyday communication. The ESB CSIA acknowledges the generosity of the artists for agreeing to talk about their life and work during this uncertain time. This oral history project has been generously supported by ESB, sponsor of the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art Photo: Sharon Blankson